Introduction
by YourAverageDreamer
Summary: Written for the 100 Themes Challenge. James meets a beautiful girl and gains a date, and Tony loses a bet, all in the same day.


"…And this is where the magic happens! The lab!" cried Stark, and James rolled his eyes. This man had a way of making everything sound bigger and more important than it really was, and he was quickly losing patience. But he'd promised Steve he'd put up with him for a tour of the Tower, and he planned to keep that promise. He knew he'd never be able to make up for trying to kill them. The guilt crippled him; despite the many assurances that it 'wasn't his fault'.

"Dr Jane Foster, she's an astrophysicist, one of the best. You already know Bruce, so we only have Boobs left," Tony said, pointing around the room until his finger landed on a voluptuous young woman who just flipped him off.

"Shut up, Stark. I know the girls are wonderful, but last I checked you had a girlfriend," she told him, and the genius smirked, moving over to one of the workstations.

"I can look at the menu, just can't order anything," he retorted, and the young woman got up, sashaying her way over to James and holding out a hand for him to shake.

"Since Stark didn't actually tell you my name, probably because it doesn't have PhD slapped on the end of it, I'm Darcy Lewis. Jane's… hey, Jane. Am I an assistant now? Because, like, I totally understand astrophysics. Kind of," she nodded, and Foster looked up, uttering a single word.

"Coffee."

Darcy rolled her eyes at that and turned back to James, "Coffee lackey, apparently."

She wandered over to the coffee machine, and it was all the former soldier could do not to stare. The way her hips moved as she walked, right over to the coffee machine, handing a cup to each of the scientists in the room before she departed.

"Peace out. America rules all that shit. You patriots like to hear stuff like that, don't you?"

James couldn't even open his mouth to reply to her. He was too busy watching her go.

_Hate to see you leave, love to watch you go_, muttered a part of his brain he was sure he'd never really get rid of. The confident, charismatic young soldier who'd had ladies queueing around the block for a date. He sighed and found himself falling back and- dammit, what in the _hell_ was the thing jabbing into his ass?!

He picked up the small, metal object, a wire coming out of it with what appeared to be cylinders on the end. He frowned in confusion, dangling it in front of his face. He heard a laugh from Jane.

"Better stop doing that. If Darcy finds out you're dangling her baby like that, she might actually kill you," she told him, and he looked up in confusion, tilting his head to the side. She took a sip of her coffee, giving him a shrug.

"She's very protective of her iPod."

iPod. That was what the strange thing was. Bit stupid of her to leave it lying around if she really did care about it as much as Foster implied she did. He sighed, and rose, clutching the metal part in his hand.

"I'll… return this to her," he told them, though no one was listening by that point, too focused on their respective tasks to listen to the assassin.

When he found her, she was sitting at a table eating poptarts. When she looked up and saw him there, the 'iPod' clutched in his hand, she let out a grateful sigh and grabbed the item from him, kissing it.

"Thank you so much! I would've been panicking for days if you hadn't brought it to me," she exclaimed, before launching herself at him, arms locking around his neck.

His breathing quickened, he didn't know how to deal with this. One half of his instincts were crying out, wanting him to throw her off him and to the other side of the room, effectively breaking her neck. The other half wanted him to pull her close to him and whisper sweet nothings in her ear until she pulled him to her bedroom and begged him to take her. He gave into neither.

Instead, he stood stiff and still in her arms until she let him go, pocketing the iPod and going back to her poptarts.

"We're going out to dinner tonight. Seven. Pick me up, don't be late," she lifted her hand, wiggling a finger at him, and he nodded, turning on his heel and walking out the room. Distantly, he heard the ound of Barton dropping out of an air vent.

"I told you she'd make the first move. Pay up, Stark," floated down the hall, and James, he just let out a sigh.

Trust the Avengers to be betting on his love life. Nevertheless, he found he couldn't grudge them it. They'd introduced him to a woman who seemed interested in him, after all.


End file.
